Long Hollow Bison Farm: Where the Buffalo Roam
When I arrived at the farm, at 2 p.m., it was a ghost town. A tractor buzzed in the background, but otherwise the scene was silent. I was unclear, at first, whether or not the farm was open. The building next to the corral was dark, and “closed” signs covered the window of the farm’s gift shop and cafÃ?©. Walking past the building, I noticed a small farm stand — the first sign that the farm was open – selling a mix of grain, vitamin, mineral which could be fed to the animals. After depositing $2 in a honor-system box, I approached the adjacent corral and found myself face to face with an animal bigger than a small car.
It was a bison, also known as the American buffalo, and what it was doing here, just a few miles down the road from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, was perplexing.
The animals are part of the Long Hollow Bison Farm, located at 272 Russell Street, in Hadley, Mass. Eight years ago, Fred and Paul Ciaglo began raising bison here, when the brothers bought their childhood home from their mother. They dreamed of saving a small part of American history and culture by preserving the species, which had been brought to the brink of extinction during the late 1800s, and in so had created a farm quite unlike anything in the Pioneer Valley.
Things have changed at the farm over the last year. The Ciaglos sold about 30 acres of their farm to Lowe’s Hardware for development purposes. As a result the heard has been thinned to 30, and the bison are now contained on the other side of the farm in a hay-filled area fenced in by metal green bars.
Along the fence tubing is placed so that you can feed the animals without getting too close. You can deposit feed into the tubing, so that it slides down into a trough. This attracts the bison, all of which seem to understand that your presence means food was waiting for them. One bison actually followed me up and down the side of the trough as I walked, waiting for me to hand over some feed. Once food was in the trough, the larger bison usually force away their smaller peers. As I watched, the largest jammed his head into the sides of those near enough to threaten his meal.
There was no real farm smell, despite my expectations, coming from the bison. If you closed your eyes you wouldn’t have know n they were there. This surprised me because as anyone who has driven down this section of Route 9 can confirm, the area smells like a gigantic animal outhouse.
As someone who has traveled to Yellowstone National Park and seen bison in their natural habitat, the experience provided by the Long Hollow Bison farm is somewhat lackluster. However, it was still a thrill to be able to observe bison from not much more than an arms length. It isn’t every day that you get to catch of glimpse of one of these animals.
I had been there for about 40 minutes before another guest arrived at the farm. A father and his four-year-old on a Sunday drive. The child was wide-eyed at the sight of the bison. “Daddy! They’re so big,” he exclaimed, as he charged toward the fence. He seemed to be as excited as if his father had taken him to the toy store or candy shop. It is moments like that which give credit to the Ciaglo brothers’ dream of making the bison available to the community.
The recent changes to the Ciaglos’ farm have come about because of Hadley’s rezoning of the area around the farm. This allowed the Ciaglos to sell a portion of their land to developers and caused them change the direction of their farm. The brothers no longer intend to raise bison for the purpose of consumption. Although the farm will continue to supply the local restaurant, Amherst Brewing Company, with bison meat, their new, smaller herd will be used mainly for breeding according to sources at the farm. This contributed to the closing of the farm gift shop, which primarily sold bison meat.
Even the tours the farm once offered are now gone. Paul Ciaglo, who used to spend his weekends giving hay ride tours of the farm, is too busy these days with his other job as a software salesman to continue those activities.
Despite the scaled-back farm, it is still a great spot to visit for an afternoon. It is not a place you would want to spend the entire day, but small children and adults will both delight at the sight of the majestic bison.
